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INTERVIEW: Chef'Special On Cracking America, Hit Single “In Your Arms” & Touring With Twenty One Pilots [Exclusive]

chef special interview

Hailing from The Netherlands, alternative pop band Chef’Special impacted on the American music market last year with the release of their first international EP, distributed by their US label of Fueled By Ramen/Atlantic Records, which spawned the very well-received single called “In Your Arms” (CF already have two studio albums out back in their home country where they are BIG!). Now, having solidified an image in the United States, and having garnered a powerful following, Chef’Special is en route to make a another huge career accomplishment. The five-piece band will open for label-mates Twenty One Pilots on their massive and sold-out “EMØTIØNAL RØADSHØW” this summer across the US.

Direct Lyrics recently caught up with Joshua Nolet, Guido Joseph, Jan Derks, Wouter Heeren and Wouter Jerry Prudon of Chef’Special to discuss their journey to date, cracking the USA, the music scene back in The Netherlands, their thoughts on Twenty One Pilots, their upcoming projects and much more! Do not miss this exclusive interview!

The Interview

1. Hi guys! Where are you answering this Q&A from, and how’s your day been like so far?

At this moment we are sitting outside our bus, which is parked on the parking lot of a best western hotel, where our bus driver is catching up on some sleep. We've had a day off in Baltimore, which was fun. We went sightseeing in the harbour area and went to a guitar centre to get some stuff.

2. First of all, how did you come up with the name Chef'Special and how did you all meet?

Jerry and Dub were friends for a long time already, and Jerry knew Joshua from the music scene in Haarlem, our hometown in the Netherlands. Dub, G and Jan knew each other from a conservatory in Rotterdam where they were studying. At that time we were all looking for people to form a new band, and very ambitious to take it as far as possible. We all loved to play a lot of different styles of music and mixing them together in an energetic live show, and to create positive energy and make people dance. Our first tours were along the coasts of France and Spain, where we played at all the surf spots, in return for food and a place to sleep. We built a name for ourselves and more people started to come to our shows. We put out a few singles and our last one, "In your arms", became a hit in the Netherlands, and hopefully the people in the US like it too!

After several months of struggling to come up with a name we decided to have dinner in a restaurant, and not leave before we had one. The waitress came to tell us about the menu, and at the bottom was the "Chef'Special". We all instantly realized that it was our destiny to go by that name.

3. You are a very eclectic band. Your songs are a blend of different genres. Some are reggae, others pop, then you have rock, and when you least expect it, you serve us reggae. Was there ever a discussion like “hey guys, let’s all sit down and talk about what sound we want to have”?

We have that talk sometimes, but we always end up just making the music that we feel like making. We all like a wide variety of styles of music, and we think its cool to put a lot of different influences in our songs. What we care about the most is if the song is good. We found out that if you write a good song, it can come across in a lot of different styles and settings.

4. You are a big in your home country of The Netherlands and in many other European territories as well. You have released two full-length album to date and your streams on Spotify are already beyond the 8 million mark. How would you briefly describe your amazing pre-U.S assault journey? Ever imagined to be loved/supported by so many people?

It has always been our goal to reach as many people as possible and travel the world with our music. As I mentioned at question 1 we started out with doing tours along the west coast of Europe. We played everywhere we could, in exchange for food and a place to stay. We gained a lot of experience and started to get a reputation for being a good live band. After a few singles we had our first hit "In Your Arms", which got us to the big stages and festivals.

5. You are now trying to build a name in America hand in hand with Fueled by Ramen and Atlantic Records. Tell us a bit how you got to sign your American deal.

An intern of our A&R manager Stefan Max heard us on HypeMachine while they we're out on vacation somewhere. Stefan liked the song and flew to the Netherlands to watch a show. Already a week later they flew us to New York to do a showcase for the whole Atlantic board. That was one of the most nerve-wrecking things we ever did, playing our music in a small rehearsal studio in front of all those big bosses. But luckily they liked it and we got signed!

6. You dropped last summer your self-titled debut EP in the U.S. The EP is made of four songs that were originally included in your second album released in Europe. Was it hard choosing what song made the EP tracklisting? Did you wish to include an original song?

That was very hard, yes. But we felt it was good to release those 4 songs first, because they represent what we were doing at the time. Like you said earlier, we play a lot of different styles, and if we would release everything at once, people may get confused about what kind of band we are. So we chose to focus on these four, and release the rest later.

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7. Your current U.S single is “In Your Arms”. A very personal story inspired this song. Could you elaborate for those who haven’t heard it yet?

"In Your Arms" is a very special track to us. Joshua wrote it for his father, who passed away. He had been trying to write something for his dad for a long time, but he was never satisfied with what he made, and after a while he gave up. Until G played him this demo that he made, just one night before the final recording of the album started. That night Joshua wrote the lyrics, and the next day we all agreed the song had something special. It felt sad and hopeful at the same time, and although Joshua wrote it for his dad, it felt like the song could speak to a lot of people in different situations.

8. I’m personally loving all four songs on this “Chef'Special” EP. When can fan expect a new album? Already writing songs for that? If so, how is it shaping up to be?

Thank you! We are right now in the process of finishing up a new album, which we are aiming to release this fall. We have been working in a lot of great studios in different places in the US, with a lot of great people. That really is one of the perks of being signed to a great label. We used to do everything on our own in our home studios in the Neherlands before.

9. You have been given the opportunity to tour with Twenty One Pilots this summer all across the U.S. How did you react when you first heard the news?

We almost couldn't believe it! We are very thankful to have been given this opportunity, we really can't think of a better tour to be on. The 21 pilots fans have been amazing to us so far. They always come early so it is already relatively full when we start to play our set, and their reactions have been very inspiring. We also learn a lot from watching 21 pilot 's show, which is absolutely mind-blowing on so many levels!

10. What do you admire of Twenty One Pilots and what’s your favorite song by them?

First of all their great songs. They mix a lot of styles together, and make great songs that appeal to a lot of people. That is obviously something that we aim to do as well. Then there's their live show, which looks amazing, they have a visual concept that has been worked out with great detail, and their visuals look so good. They are both great musicians, and and on top of all that, even pretty decent acrobats!

Our personal favourite is "Ride".

11. What can tour-goers expect from a Chef'Special show?

We always try to put on an energetic and uplifting live show, and build a party together with the audience. We think its very important that the audience feels involved with what's going on on stage, and that we generate positive energy together.

12. What’s a song that you haven’t covered yet that you are looking to do in the tour?

We are still in the process of perfecting our setlist. Every night we try stuff out and watch the reaction of the audience, to see if we made a good move. I can't think of any song in particular that we need to get in there, but maybe later on in the tour we will start to play a new song that could become our new single.

13. What are Chef'Special’s Top 5 songs (of other artists) of the moment?

1. Text Message - Busy Signal

2. Cocoa butter kisses - Chance the rapper

3. Nocturne in E-Flat Major. Op. 9, No.2 - Frederic Chopin

4. Muizenberg - John Wizzards

5. Can't help falling in love - Elvis Presley

14. This last question is a bit of personal curiosity. I know everybody speaks English in The Netherlands. But, do you imagine yourselves ever recording a full EP or album in Dutch? Or what’s the situation of Dutch language in music over there?

There is a large tradition of singing in English in the Netherlands. I think this has to do with two things.

- A lot of music that is played by Dutch bands is inspired on English/American music. And sometimes to us the language is a part of the sound of that music. Therefore it feels better to sing in English. Also funny enough, classic phrases like "Twist and shout!", or "Come on baby lets rock!" are not really translatable to Dutch in a way that sounds cool in a lyric, and so are a lot of other phrases. It's sad but true.

- Second reason is that the Netherlands is a really small country, so if you sing in Dutch, there are only about 23 million people in the world that can understand you. If you have international aspirations like us it's therefore much better to sing in English.

Because of those reasons I don't see ourselves doing an album in Dutch anytime soon. There is however big scene with Dutch music in The Netherlands.

15. Thank you for your time, guys. Any last thing you’d like to share with our readers at Directlyrics.com?

Listen to a band called "The Slackers"! They are one of our favorite bands ever.

By on June 19, 2016
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